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Letter calls on Boeing to join Santa Susana Field Lab clean-up deal

by AP

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A group of local and state officials is calling on Boeing to sign an agreement committing the company to completely cleaning up the site of a partial nuclear meltdown that occured in 1959 just outside Los Angeles.

Last week the Department of Energy and NASA announced similar agreements with the state to remove all contamination from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site. Residents cheered the move, which commits to a 2017 cleanup date.

Wednesday's letter calls on the Boeing to accept its responsibility for the cleanup. Boeing could not immediately be reached for comment but last week said it was still reviewing the agreement.

During the Cold War, workers at the site tested thousands of rockets and experimented with nuclear reactors, leaving contaminants that many believed trickled into the communities below, causing residents to become ill.